“You mean we have to drink rain?” Ike asked.
“Well, you could always drink your own sweat. You just told us you had plenty,” Mary suggested with a laugh.
It took a minute to find what she was looking for. A fairly steady stream of rainwater came from a nearby tree. Mary quickly filled a canteen and started drinking.
“Here goes nothing,” Helen said, putting the second canteen to her lips.
Helen looked skeptical at first, but raised her eyebrows in satisfaction as she finished off the flask.
“Hmm, not so bad.”
“Your turn, Ike,” Mary said, handing him a filled canteen.
“Oh, alright!” he said, grabbing the canteen and taking a drink.
Despite his complaining, he filled and drank from the flask multiple times.
When all had finished drinking, Mary filled the canteens again and put them in the bag. She finished just in time, as the brief rainstorm subsided. The sounds of the rain on the canopy faded, and the cries of birds and insects grew louder once again.
Mary watched as pools of water on the ground dispersed or soaked into the soil. Suddenly, a light went on in her head.
“Guys, look at this!” she said, pointing at the ground.
Helen and Ike tried to figure out what Mary was showing them.
“Mary, are you okay?” Helen asked. “I know you get excited about weird stuff and all, but are you sure there wasn’t something in that water that’s making you see things?”
“It’s normal,” Ike said. “She’s probably just geeking out about mud.”
“Well, not exactly the mud,” Mary said. “But look at what the water’s doing!”
Most of the water had already soaked into the ground, creating the mud that Ike pointed out. However, enough water had collected in some areas to create small puddles. Raindrops still dripped from the trees and kept the little puddles filled. As these small pools overflowed, the water trickled away in tiny streams. The streams only lasted for a moment or two, then quickly soaked into the rich rainforest soil.
“I still don’t get—” Helen started.
“See if there are other little streams of water like this!” Mary ordered. “And check which direction they’re flowing.”
Helen and Ike looked at one another and shrugged. Though confused, they obeyed, and began to search per Mary’s orders. Together they found a few more pools of collected water. In each case they observed the same phenomenon. They had to look quickly, but it was enough.
“All the streams flow in that same direction,” she said, pointing.
“So?” Ike said. “What difference does that make?”
“It’s south!” Mary said, triumphantly. “Or at least, it’s toward the river, and the direction we want to go.”
“How do you know that?” Ike asked, confused.
“The ground here isn’t completely flat.” Mary explained. “There’s always a low point in a river basin. That’s how the river knows where to flow. I remember reading about how all water runs to the lowest part of the land, forming rivers. Even this rainwater is finding its way to the Amazon.”
“It sounds smart enough to me, Professor,” Helen said. “Should we get going then? I’d like to be home before dinner.”
Mary strained to get another look at the sky through the canopy. Even without a clear view, Mary knew that night was coming. Before long, they’d be in the middle of a pitch-black rainforest.
“Are we going or what?” Helen asked, impatiently.
“No,” Mary replied. “It’s too risky. We’ll need to wait until morning.”
Camping
“Say what?” Ike asked, his eyes bulging. “You mean, sleep outside?”
“It’ll be just like camping!” Mary replied, hoping to make it sound exciting.
It didn’t work. The looks Helen and Ike gave her said that they weren’t in the mood for joking around.
“Look,” Mary continued, “We’ll be outside all night anyway. If we start walking now, we’ll either get lost in the middle of a completely dark jungle, or we’ll make it to the river and it will be dark there too. There won’t be any boats passing at night.”
“But won’t we be safer near the water?” Ike wondered. “What if something in the rainforest tries to eat us?”
“Where do you think most of the animals live?” Mary replied. “They all hang out near the water, especially the big animals that hunt at night. I think we’ll be much safer here.”
Mary knew that sleeping in middle of the rainforest, especially as unprepared as they were, wouldn’t be easy. But what other choice did they have?
“Well, if we have to stay out here, should we at least build some kind of shelter?” Helen suggested, sounding resigned to their fate.
“Good idea!” Mary said.
She looked around to see what they might use.
“How about a teepee made out of sticks?” Ike proposed. “There are plenty of those around.”
Mary nodded.
“That’ll work. Let’s gather as many good sticks as we can. Be careful what you pick up, though. Make sure that there aren’t any weird looking frogs, or sna … sn … uh … snaggy … things … ” Mary trailed off.
“You were going to say ‘snakes,’ weren’t you?” Helen accused.
Mary ignored her and continued on.
“Just assume that anything you don’t recognize might be poisonous. Once we have enough sticks, will make a little teepee. We can use the rain coats from Grandpa’s backpack to keep dry. One can be for the floor so we’re not sleeping in the wet mud. We’ll use the other one to cover the top of the teepee, in case it rains again.”
“What about the snakes?” Helen demanded.
Ike was holding back laughter, obviously remembering the boa constrictor slithering over Helen in the tree. Mary shot him a look of warning not to say anything.
“Well,” Mary said carefully, not wanting to cause any more alarm, “At least one of us can stay awake and keep watch. If anything comes close, we’ll scare it away.”
“I’ll stay up,” Helen offered immediately. “There’s no way I’ll sleep anyway knowing that a snake might slither over me at any moment.”
Ike couldn’t take it anymore, and nearly fell over laughing.
“What’s your problem?” Helen asked.
“Are you sure you want to know?” he replied.
“Actually, not really,” Helen said. “Let’s just hurry up and get this tent built. I’d like to get through this night as soon as possible.”
Mary knew it was going to be a long, exhausting night. Hopefully they’d still have enough strength to get to the river tomorrow. If needed, they could take turns napping in the daylight as they waited for a boat.
“Why don’t we build a fire?” Ike suggested. “That would at least make it feel like camping, and might scare all the jaguars and snakes and whatever else lives here away. Mary, you don’t happen to have some matches and maybe some marshmallows in Grandpa’s magic bag, do you?”
“Nope,” Mary said. “But a fire would be a good idea. It’s too bad that everything’s so damp around here. Even if we had matches, I’m not sure I could get one started.”
“We don’t need matches. Just leave the fire to me!” Ike said proudly. “I didn’t go through two years of Cub Scouts for nothing! Find me two sticks and I’ll rub them together.”
“Really?” Helen asked, skeptically. “Now that’s something I’d like to see.”
“Ike, have you ever made a fire like that?” Mary wondered.
“Not exactly,” Ike admitted. “But I’ve seen it done in movies, so it can’t be that hard. You girls go and gather your teepee sticks, and I’ll get the fire going.”
Ike grabbed a nearby stick and immediately started hacking at it with the machete, trying to carve the end to a point.
The girls giggled at Ike’s intensity and left to gather branches. Within t
en minutes, they had a small teepee constructed, just large enough for the three of them to sit in overnight. It looked even better than Mary had expected.
They finished just in time. It was rapidly getting darker, and soon they wouldn’t be able to see anything at all.
“How’s that fire coming, Ike?” Helen asked.
“Well, it could be better … ” Ike said, hesitantly.
He was furiously rolling a stick in between his palms, with its point held against thick piece of bark. Despite his efforts, there wasn’t even any smoke.
“Oh well, maybe I didn’t learn anything in Cub Scouts after all,” he said, throwing down his stick and giving up.
“Don’t worry about it, brother. It was worth a shot,” Mary said, giving him an encouraging pat on the shoulder.
The three of them climbed into the small, makeshift tent. The light was almost gone.
“Helen, I know you said you’d stay up. But it’s my fault we’re here, so I can keep watch. You two should try to get some sleep,” Mary said.
“Oh sure, Mary,” Helen replied, “I’ll just lay down on this comfortable bed and catch some Zs. The fact that a million things are waiting to crawl on me or kill me at any moment won’t bother me at all!”
“I think at this point I’d trade these bugs for a jaguar!” Ike said, as he swatted at insects flying around him.
“Just make sure you swat any mosquitoes,” Mary said. “They’re actually far more deadly to people in the rainforest than any other animals. Malaria, dengue, yellow fever—”
“Thank you, we get the point!” Helen said, slapping at bugs on her arms.
Mary didn’t expect that they’d fall asleep easily, if at all. She was on high alert, worried about all that was unseen in the darkness. It was already impossible to see anything more than a few feet away from the teepee.
“Helen, are you still awake?” Mary whispered, after probably fifteen minutes of silence.
“What do you think?” Helen replied.
“Ike, what about you?” asked Mary.
He didn’t answer. Mary didn’t know how he’d done it, but she could just hear his deep breathing over the cacophony of the night-time rainforest. Ike was fast asleep.
Waiting for the Morning
Bang!
Mary started awake. The echoes of a gunshot rang through the dark rainforest. Thousands of noisy animals grew even louder in response to the unnatural sound.
“What was that?” Helen asked, her voice tense with anxiety.
It took a moment for Mary to remember where she was.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I dozed off, but the sound woke me up.”
“It sounded like a gunshot,” Helen said. “Why would somebody be shooting a gun at night in the middle of the rainforest?”
Mary had no clue. In her sleepy state, she wondered if the janitor had used the globe to follow them. The thought made her shudder at first, until she realized that he’d have no motive for that, now that he already had what he wanted.
“I don’t know,” Mary said. “But whoever’s out there, I hope they stay away. The last thing we want is for a poacher or hunter to mistake us for an animal or something.”
The spookiness of the dark rainforest pressed around Mary at every side.
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to fall asleep again after that,” she whispered.
But she was tired. After half an hour passed, Mary felt herself starting to doze off again. That ended abruptly as a blood-curdling jungle cry came from somewhere in the distance. Goosebumps immediately pricked all over her skin.
“And what was that?” Helen asked in a low, frightened whisper.
Mary was terrified by the unearthly sound.
“A howler monkey, I think,” Mary fibbed.
A howler monkey seemed like the least threatening of all the possibilities that flashed through her head.
It didn’t help at all that Mary was familiar with some of the folklore of strange Amazonian creatures. She thought of the mapinguary, a large, sloth-like Amazonian version of Bigfoot. It was said to have one giant eye and a gaping mouth full of razor-sharp teeth right in the middle of its abdomen. Even if it was only a tall tale, Mary didn’t need much imagination in the darkness. She trembled as she tried to think of more pleasant thoughts.
Gradually, Mary let down her guard, and began to drift off again. She was almost asleep when yet another sound jolted her awake. This time, it came from somewhere much closer.
A large “something” hit against the roof of their shelter. Mary listened as it slid over the raincoat before going silent. Rigid with fear, she sat tensely, not daring to make a sound. She hoped Helen was already asleep. Mary suspected another boa constrictor.
For several minutes, she was on guard, expecting a huge snake to come into their tent at any moment. Luckily, it never came.
The night went on, seemingly forever, and Mary drifted in and out of sleep. At long last, the first lights of morning trickled through the leaves above.
Mary emerged first from the little tent. Helen followed, and stretched as if she’d never stretched before. Helen looked ragged and tired, and Mary knew she didn’t look any better.
“I’m going to take a quick look around,” Helen announced. “I’ve got to move after being cramped up like that all night long.”
“Don’t go too far. We should probably wake up Ike soon and start for the river,” Mary said.
“Relax, mom. I’ll be right back,” Helen replied, walking into the forest.
Ike still snored. After Mary’s rough night, she couldn’t understand how her little brother had slept so soundly. As she shook him, he drowsily opened his eyes. Glancing around, a look of dejection crossed his face.
“I was hoping this was all just a dream,” he whined. “Is it morning already?”
“Yes,” Mary answered, “and I don’t know how you were able to sleep all night. Helen and I hardly slept at all.”
“Did anything happen during the night?” he asked as he climbed out of the tent.
“Well, funny you should ask,” Mary said. “A lot of strange sounds, including one that sounded like a gun firing.”
“A gun?” Ike asked, his jaw dropping. “You mean there’s somebody out here?”
“Apparently,” Mary answered. “But if it’s a poacher, then I hope we don’t cross paths.”
Ike seemed spooked by the idea of someone lurking in the dark rainforest, so Mary didn’t mention the other scary sounds.
At that very moment they heard somebody, or something, approaching through the brush.
“Ahhh!” Mary and Ike screamed in unison, both jumping.
“Are you two okay?” Helen said with a laugh, coming into view from behind a large bush.
Mary immediately relaxed.
“Oh good, it’s just you,” she said.
“Of course it’s me. Who else would it be?” Helen retorted.
Mary just shrugged.
“So, now that you two are both up, can we finally go to the river?” Helen wondered.
“What about breakfast?” Ike asked.
“Oh sure,” Helen replied. “Maybe we could just find the nearest McDonald’s.”
“Very funny,” Ike said. “But seriously, are we going to eat anything? I’m starving!”
“I did find these,” Helen said, holding out a few yellowish, oval-shaped fruits, each about the size of an egg. “I saw monkeys eating them, so I figure they’re not poisonous.”
In her hungry state, Mary thought the fruit looked particularly delicious.
“Dig in!” Helen said, smiling.
“What are they?” Ike asked, picking up a piece and looking at it skeptically.
“Who knows?” Mary said. “Thousands of plants only grow here in the Amazon. I’ve never seen this one before.”
“There’s only one way to find out,” said Helen, as she sank her teeth into a piece of fruit.
She chewed for a moment. It wasn’t clear by her face whether she liked it or not.
“Well, it’s not a peach, but I’m hungry enough to not really care,” she said, after swallowing.
Mary ate her fruit. The texture was like a tomato, though not as watery. It didn’t have much flavor. But like Helen said, she was hungry, and would take what she could get.
“I’m ready for my second course,” Ike said, forcing a fake burp.
“Here’s a stick,” Helen said, tossing him a branch. “Why don’t you go monkey hunting?”
“Come on, let’s just make our way to the river,” Mary said. “Along the way, we’ll keep a lookout for anything else to eat.”
Mary packed up the raincoats, and was about to set off, when she remembered something she’d thought of during the night.
“Wait! There’s one more thing we need to do,” she said.
“What now?” Ike complained.
“We need a way to mark our trail,” Mary explained. “I want to make sure we don’t end up getting lost or going in circles.”
“Leave that to me,” Ike said, holding up the machete, which he’d adopted as his own.
He walked to the nearest tree.
“Wait, don’t!” Mary cried as Ike held his weapon back, ready to strike.
“What’s wrong, Mary?” Helen wondered. “For once, your little brother actually has a good idea.”
Mary winced.
“I know,” she said, “it’s just the idea of hurting one of these trees is hard for me.”
“Aww, do you need to hug it one last time before we go?” Ike teased.
Mary realized that it was the right thing to do. It was to save their lives, after all.
“Okay Ike, go ahead. Just try not to cause too much damage,” she relented.
With a look of pleasure in his eyes, Ike quickly made a few chops in the surface of the trunk, cutting two distinct grooves. It only took a moment, and left a rough shape of the letter “T” on the surface of the tree.
The Magnificent Glass Globe Page 6
